


Ten Times I Loved You

by Ryeaugla



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Super Smash Brothers, Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Bad Timelines, Betrayal, Character Death, Disfigurement, Drabble, Drabble Collection, Drabble Sequence, Emotional Manipulation, Kidnapping, M/M, Murder, Rape, Spoilers for future stories, Suicide, Temporary Character Death, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-21 22:01:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7406743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short collection of drabbles telling about ten times Robin really found himself in love with Shulk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ten Times I Loved You

**Author's Note:**

> I dunno, I just wanted to do something a little bit different. Something out of sequence, too. Also beware, as there will be spoilers to stories that have yet to be written and probably won't be written for a long time until now, considering I've been keeping to chronological order.
> 
> Also some of these snippets take place in a "bad timeline" where things didn't work out perfectly as they will in the true sequence. These will be pretty obvious to determine, seeing as they end with something terrible happening, such as somebody dying.
> 
> And yes, they're all written in first person from Robin's perspective, as opposed to the third person omniscient narrator I normally use. "I" refers to Robin and "you" refers to Shulk, with other characters getting their respective pronouns (Grima possessing Reflet's body gets female pronouns despite being officially male).

**I. Beyond My Expectations**

The first time I loved you was during our first true meeting.

I didn't come to the Super Smash Brothers tournament to find somebody who could repair the holes in my heart – I came to compete. I instantly felt a connection to my counterpart from another Outrealm, however, and I assumed that Reflet was going to be the only person I would be able to get close to.

I had initially written you off as a dumb meathead due to the fact that your reveal video had you jumping around all athletic like and showing off your body in that swimsuit. My first impression of you was all wrong.

It was shattered several days later after Reflet convinced me to get out of my room and head to the library to pick out a couple of books. She was hoping that I would finally talk to somebody other than her or her husband, whereas my intention was to just grab a couple of books and then squirrel myself away back into my room, only to be seen during tournament matches.

But there you were, sitting at one of the reading tables in the library with a pair of black glasses affixed to your face. I was extremely surprised to see you sitting there, especially considering the image I painted of you in my mind. Therefore, I found myself coming over to talk to you against my better judgment, all because I wanted to find out why you were here.

When I cleared my throat to grab your attention, I finally had my first look into those beautiful ringed eyes of yours. I could see your earnest nature in them immediately, but I wanted verification from your own mouth. What were you doing here, I asked. The answer was an obvious one, but the question escaped me anyway.

“Reading, of course” was your patient answer. You could have easily responded to me in a snappy tone, but you didn't. Instead, you answered all of my stupid questions with calm and concise answers. Not once did you ask me why I was making all those inquiries of you, either. There was one answer in particular that stood out in my mind from that plethora of questions that I asked of you.

“So you're not here just to look cool?”

“By the Bionis, of course not! I love reading! Back home on Bionis, before realising I was the Heir to the Monado, I spent hours every day sitting in my laboratory with a book in my hands. Here, you look like somebody who enjoys a good book.” Immediately afterward, you thrust a book into my arms with a pleasant smile on your face, and I had no choice but to accept the text from you. Except... I wasn't angry with it or with you.

I knew I found a kindred spirit within you, the man who went beyond all my expectations. I clutched that text close to my stomach as I left the library, and I knew that I definitely wanted to see you again.

 

**II. Reawakened Feelings**

The second time I loved you was when I finally asked you to be mine.

Ever since that first meeting, I couldn't get you out of my head. The swordsman from another world who was both attractive and intelligent. I kept staring at you from afar, getting lost in my thoughts time and time again as I admired you from a distance.

Even though you hadn't noticed my admiration, Reflet did. She knew what had happened to my late wife and the fact that I was lonely as a result of it. She also realized that, despite the fact that I was in love with a woman once, I was now deeply enamored with a man. Reflet was the first person to tell me that I was indeed bisexual. After all, back long before I ever set foot in that mansion, my first crush was on another man.

Chrom was a lot like you in many regards – powerful and possessing a strong sense of duty, yet kind and humble. Even before discovering he was a prince, I felt attracted to him. However, I had to cast those feelings aside after my miscalculations resulted in his sister's death, and he was now the crown prince. He needed to marry a woman so that an heir to the Ylissean throne could be born. On the day of Chrom's wedding to Sumia, I thought my feelings for men had died for good.

But you had reawakened them, whether I liked it or not. Reflet said that if I didn't declare my feelings to you, she would tell you for me. Of course, I refused to let her be the one to break the news to you, and so I swallowed my pride and finally confessed my feelings.

“Ever since the day we met at the library, I've been watching you from afar.” I admitted, taking both of your hands into my own. “You've been all over my thoughts from the moment I realized that you weren't the person that I originally thought you were. Please... can you give us a chance?”

“What?” You asked with a confused tone. “I thought we _were_ friends, Robin. After all, you took my book without hesitation.” It was at that moment that I realized that I was going to have to be more direct if I wanted us to be more than just friends.

“We _are_ friends, Shulk.” Came my response. “However... I don't want us to just be friends.” From the hurt look on your face, I knew you had taken my words the wrong way. And that was what prompted me to reach up and steal a kiss from your lips while you were still trying to figure out why I didn't want to be your friend. It managed to snap you out of it and you now stared at me in shock, which gave me the opportunity to continue. “No, I don't want us to just be friends... I want us to be lovers. Will you accept me as your boyfriend?”

“I... All right.” You still looked dazed as you returned the hug that I responded to your acceptance with, but confusion quickly turned into comfort, and I knew that your heart had accepted me too.

 

**III. Into the Fire**

The third time I loved you was when I fought to save you for the first time.

All you wanted to do was see what a sunset was like on my world, as I had bragged about how beautiful they were. Sunsets were very different on your world, and you wanted to see what mine were like. And so we planned to take a trip out to Ylisse so you could meet some of my friends, watch a sunset, and then head back home to the mansion.

However, dark forces had other plans for us. We ended up in the middle of the desert with no idea where to go, unknowing that mercenaries had been sent to capture me. You tried to save us with your foresight, but it wasn't enough due to a lack of Ether on my world. We were overpowered and you were captured instead of me.

I traversed the desert alone with only your precious sword attached to my back in hopes that I might find you and rescue you from your captivity. I met with all kinds of undesirable individuals while searching Plegia for clues as to where you might have been taken, running into more trouble than I did pertinent information.

But the bandits I dealt with seemed to know those who took you and finally gave me the clue I needed to find you. I sneaked by plenty of Grimleal guards by pretending to be one of their own, blending easily in thanks to my Plegian-made cloak. I almost got busted a couple of times, but I finally made it to where you were being held.

My heart panged with both guilt and a desire to save you as I looked into your broken, clouded eyes. They had tortured you ceaselessly in hopes that you would break and surrender to them, and for you to kill me so that they could use my corpse for their heinous devices.

But you weren't completely broken yet. When I called out to you from that crowd, I saw your eyes light up with life again, and that fierce swordsman spirit come back to life as you broke free from your bonds. The dark magic they used to bind me in place was the final straw, and you attacked your captors because you wouldn't dare hurt me. My strength was greatly sapped, but I could see your silhouette through blurred eyes dash forward to stop my body from falling to the ground.

In spite of the cursed mark on your back and the room full of evil cultists that could have easily destroyed both of us, you leaped to my rescue all the same. I knew that any hesitation you had in regards to the two of us being together was gone now.

I knew that you would fight against the whole multiverse if you had to just to be with me.

That was what made me decide to slit my wrist open and pour my blood over your curse to save you. I knew it was true love.

 

**IV. I'm Still Human**

The fourth time I loved you was after you gave me a second chance.

We got into a terrible argument over something so trivial, as far as I saw it. You moved out of our room because you wouldn't deal with me after I infuriated you like that. You also started spending a lot more time with Samus, and so I was convinced that I was going to lose you to her – lose the one person who made me come out of my shell. And I didn't want that.

Dunban unintentionally gave me a hint about how you liked Blue Chains and how they were found around Colony 9, so I sneaked away to Bionis in order to collect some for you, ignoring the warnings that your world was war-torn and dangerous. I even broke the portal unintentionally while doing so. And that spelled my doom. Nobody could save me from taking a metal claw to my chest after I was completely surrounded by Mechon.

Egil knew how much our fates were intertwined, and he planned to use me to get through to you. As such, he revived me to hook me up to the terrible machine known as Obsidian Face. I screamed at the top of my lungs that I would refuse to serve him, but the machine won in the end. It manipulated my mind and turned me into a murderer without me realizing it because it was controlling me. It even had me fight against you with the intent of killing you, having me coming up with an ingenious plan to lure you out of the safety of the mansion and eliminate you while you were trapped. If it weren't for Samus, it would have succeeded.

After Obsidian Face crashed into Lake Raguel, something drew you to the cockpit of the machine despite the fact that it was likely going to blow up soon from the fire that was slowly creeping up the Mechon's frame. Because of that, you saved me from dying again.

Now I had to confront a terrible new truth. I hated my new Mechon body even more than I hated my human body. I knew I was dangerous and that it wasn't fully under my control anymore. Egil had installed things into me that turned me into a killing machine. I could level the entire Smash City if I got angry enough. Worst of all, I was now your mortal enemy – a Mechon. My kind were trying to destroy the Bionis and bring your species to extinction.

...No, I wasn't a Mechon. Not to you. You insisted that I was still a human, but with a machine body. What mattered to you was the fact that I was alive again, and I was forgiven for my transgressions against your people. You gave me a second chance to be yours, and I promised I would never do anything to make you that angry at me again. You loved me for me, and I knew I loved you too.

 

**V. A Happy Distraction**

The fifth time I loved you was when you asked for my hand in marriage.

I admit that it was a stupid thing that I had done. The Monado was a weapon specially created to destroy Mechon, and here I was, a stupid little Mechon attempting to control the legendary Sword of the Bionis. Even before I lost my human body, I was never supposed to be the one to wield the Monado. I didn't even hail from the same universe that the Monado came from, let alone was I not its chosen wielder. But it was made even worse because of my mechanical body. The sword attempted to destroy me just as I was holding it, but I was determined to use it.

I didn't have any other weapons within easy reach right now that could deal with Grima as she was trying to place you under her control, kissing your lips over and over again as her magic seeped into your body. You had stopped resisting, so it was up to me to do it for you. That was why I grabbed the Monado and attacked her with it. I managed to save you, but at the cost of my Mechon body's integrity. I passed out not long later and went into a hibernation-like state.

You wanted to save me by making a new Mechon frame for me, but you wanted it to be authentic too, using metal from the Mechonis. But because of Grima, you were bound to the mansion so that she couldn't get to you. Master Hand didn't want to lose you, after all. And so Samus and Reflet went to Mechonis to get some metal instead.

Instead of coming home with metal, they returned with a fully functional new frame for me, given to them by the people of Mechonis. Even though you were surprised that there were good people from Mechonis that would help the Heir to the Monado, you wasted no time getting to work uninstalling my old and broken frame while affixing the new frame in its place.

However, before you finished fixing me up, you added one final touch to my new frame: a beautiful golden engagement ring attached to my left ring finger, held in place by a magnet so that it wouldn't fall off.

Not long after the frame was installed, I woke up again. I was certainly surprised to see that I had a brand new frame, but it quickly became clear that my body was almost completely synthetic as I examined myself. In my state of despair, I went to bury my head in my hands and start crying, but I got distracted by that shiny little band on my finger. When I asked about it, you told me that it was supposed to be an engagement ring, but if you were being too forward by slipping it onto my finger with my new frame that I could easily take it off.

But I didn't want to take it off. I would never take it off. You distracted me from my body misery with immense happiness. Of course I said yes; I loved you more than you could ever imagine.

 

**VI. Everything Was Stolen**

The sixth time I loved you was before I shot myself.

There is such a thing as loving somebody too much, and I was a fool not to realize it until it was too late. I let my feelings get the best of me that fateful day. You came to my rescue, hoping that you would just break into the citadel, break me out of my prison, and then leave with little difficulty. Everything had gone so well for you up to that point, but I ruined everything in an instant.

I completely lost control of myself, and my computer programming proved stronger than my human side. My human side blacked out as I ran on autopilot.

Not even your fearful pleas to make me stop were enough to override my coding. Not even the fact that the night prior, I was in the same situation as you changed anything in my robotic mind. And certainly not the bloodcurdling scream that came from your mouth as I stole away your innocence was able to reawaken my sleeping humanity.

By the time I finally did regain my senses, it was too late. There you were beneath me, face flushed and cheeks puffy with tears. I got off as quickly as I could as tears started running down my own face out of horror toward what I had become. You tried to make me feel better by giving all kinds of excuses, such as you thinking it really did feel good or that you would have given your innocence to me anyway, but that didn't change the fact that I stole it forcibly from you.

With Daraen's help, we managed to get all the robots out of that terrible prison, but I was a broken man. I pushed you away because I was afraid that I would hurt you again. I was convinced that keeping my distance from you was what was best for you. After all, I was just like every other Mechon that you had gone up against – I was designed to hurt you, the Heir to the Monado, enemy of Mechonis.

At the same time, you were everything to me. I had only gone to Bionis for your sake, which had led to my first death. Because of how close I was to you, Egil turned me into a mechanical monstrosity. You cured my loneliness and made me come out of my shell while here at the mansion. Without you, there was no reason for me to live, and I knew it. My life revolved around you.

How was I supposed to kill myself if I had the body of a machine? I pondered this for a long time when I finally came up with an answer – my head. I still had the head of a human because Egil needed my brainpower. As such, it was my one vulnerability among a nigh upon impervious armored body.

To spare everybody the mess of having to clean up after me, I headed outside to do the deed. A simple gunshot to the head would be enough to take me out for good. As such, I went out to the back lawn with a revolver in hand, put it in my mouth, and fired. The bullet killed me instantly. You were the last thing on my mind as I blew my brains out.

I wouldn't have wanted to hear your cries of despair upon finding my dead body. Perhaps your scream then would have been louder than the scream you let out as I took your innocence.

 

**VII. My Deranged Love**

The seventh time I loved you was when you corrupted me.

I would do anything for you, and I knew it. I couldn't bear to be without you. So after you were murdered before my very eyes, it felt like I had been murdered too. Ultimate despair befell me, and I sobbed endlessly into your pale, lifeless skin.

However, it didn't have to be this way. I didn't have to live without you. Even though my body was made of metal, my heart and soul still belonged to the lineage of the Fell Dragon. I thought that Chrom had sealed Grima away for another thousand or so years, but much of his dark magic from the time he had been unleashed into my world still remained. Reflet's dragon had absorbed much of it, but there was still plenty lingering about. There was certainly enough for him to reach out from his slumber to me in my moment of ultimate despair and whisper malicious temptations into my mind.

 _You don't have to be without your precious seer._ The darkness whispered. _I can bring him back for you._ It sounded too good to be true, but my common sense was gone. All it took to have you back again was for me to break the seal that Chrom had placed on the Fell Dragon, and I was desperate enough to try. Thus, I stormed into Ylisse, brutally murdered some of my old friends and companions who stood between me and my goal, including Lissa, Frederick, and Sumia, and stole the Fire Emblem from its pedestal before heading back to Plegia to do the ritual that would spell doom for the world – and happiness for me once more.

One of the Grimleal priests had once told me that my body was worthless to Grima because most of his 'divine flesh' had been replaced with robotic parts. And yet, that didn't stop him from accepting me as his host. In fact, he _liked_ having a body that was almost indestructible. No Falchion was going to be able to pierce my Mechon armor, especially if I wore a helmet to cover my vulnerable head.

Grima did live up to his end of the bargain, too. He gave you back to me, albeit as my Risen slave. But it didn't matter to my corrupted mind whether or not you were lucid or not – I had you again, and that was what was most important. Grima was even surprisingly merciful to me, allowing me moments where he gave me control of my body again, which I always used to give you my deranged love, never even thinking twice about doing anything other than cuddling, kissing, or fornicating. My time where I was free to do whatever I wished to you was limited, after all. He manipulated me and I played right into his hands.

The land was ravaged by the dragon that was supposed to have been sealed away, and I betrayed my closest friends just because I loved you too much to want to live without you.

 

**VIII. A Group Project**

The eighth time I loved you was when we rebuilt Obsidian Face together.

It was a project that had actually been started by Voniluk. He came out with me to Bionis to find the Obsidian Wreckage in Lake Raguel, and he promised me that he would recreate the machine for me as thanks for everything I did for him. Of course, I had such bad memories revolving around Obsidian Face and how it had nearly killed you before, so I quickly tried to shoot the offer down. He had a different plan for the dark purple Mechon, however – he was going to recreate it so that I was in full control of the machine, not unlike how Samus had her starship or the Star Fox pilots had their Arwings. I was hesitant, but I trusted him. A Machina had created the Faced Mechon in the first place, so another Machina could easily reverse engineer it so that it wasn't under Egil's control and could be used like my own personal airship.

When he died, I thought the project had died along with him. Obsidian Face was always going to be known as the destructive machine that had almost resulted in your death. Yet somehow you managed to recover the data from Klaire's destroyed body and continued the project yourself in secrecy. I wondered why you were being so distant and secretive with me as well as spending a lot more time in your engineering lab than with me to the point that you sometimes slept in the lab rather than in our bed, and I started to worry if I had angered you again. I didn't want a repeat of the incident that had resulted in me being turned into a Mechon in the first place, and so I tried everything to get back in your good graces, but that still wasn't enough for you to reveal why you were keeping your distance from me.

I respected your privacy when you said that you didn't want me coming into your lab while you were working, but eventually I became so desperate for your attention that I broke that rule. That was what convinced me to follow you to your lab one day and slip inside to look for whatever was holding your attention hostage.

It didn't take long to notice the giant purple machine set up in the middle of the lab, and upon seeing it, I totally forgot about hiding. You caught me standing in plain sight and yelled at me, which made me turn around quickly and start apologizing for intruding. But you weren't angry. If anything, you were disappointed, but not with me. You were disappointed that you didn't have the chance to reveal the finished product to me as a special surprise. You weren't avoiding me because you were angry at me – you just didn't want me knowing about Obsidian Face until it was finally time to give it to me.

It wasn't finished yet, nor would it be finished for a while if it was just you working on the endeavor. But now that I knew about your efforts to rebuild my Faced Mechon, I offered you my assistance. Together, we were able to cut down the time needed to finish the rebuilding considerably, and I was happy to help with whatever you needed me to do because I loved you.

 

**IX. The Pain of Powerlessness**

The ninth time I loved you was when I thought I would lose you forever.

Nobody saw it coming. All the warning signs that something was wrong had been ignored, and the only person who knew anything about this problem that existed was unknowingly being manipulated as well.

Grima perfectly timed everything for her attack. She knew that today was a For Fun match day, and all the items were allowed for use. That included the Smash Ball. Your foresight was limited because you were out on the tournament field, and Master Hand had made it so that you couldn't use your foresight to cheat and dodge or parry every single move that came your way. Only when you made that deliberate pose were you allowed a second of foresight so that you could see any attacks that were coming your way. Master Hand's powers limiting yours were his folly that fateful day. After all, had you been afforded full agency of your foresight, you definitely would have seen the attack before it occurred.

She played the game as normal up until the point that the Smash Ball appeared on the battlefield. Granted, everybody tried to get the Smash Ball whenever it showed up, so nobody saw her aggressive behavior in trying desperately to get that item as anything more than normal gameplay. Finally, she managed to shatter the Smash Ball, and that powerful aura enveloped her. Even you went after her in hopes that you could knock the Smash Ball's power out of her.

But that was exactly what she wanted. Once you got close, she activated the Smash Ball's power. However, she didn't use it to pull off the typical Final Smash. Instead, she fired off a powerful dark magic spell that paralyzed everybody around her – the crowd included – and used her dragon body's claw to rip open a hole between dimensions that you were quickly shoved into before it closed behind you and her. Everybody gasped as they witnessed the horrifying kidnapping, and, even though I wasn't participating in that Smash match, I flew out onto the battlefield, screaming and crying your name over and over again.

I attacked what was left of Grima's rip in the dimensional fabric with my Levin Sword and magic desperately, hoping that I could open up the tear once again to go through and save you. Other Smashers stormed the field not long later and tried to help me out in hopes that they could rescue their fellow fighter who had just been kidnapped. However, nothing worked. Nothing could get that tear to open again.

I fell to my knees as the dimensional magic finally faded away into nothing and sobbed loudly into my metal hands. It was the most powerless that I felt in my life. I couldn't save the one I loved from being taken from the supposedly safe haven of our home. All our efforts to keep Grima out of the mansion were for naught – a traitor had let her in to get what she wanted. If I ever saw him again, he would pay for what he did.

 

**X. A Blaze of Glory**

The final time I loved you was before I died again. No third chance for me.

I knew I was fighting a losing battle from the moment the first thunderbolt was thrown at my Faced Mechon. Grima was just much more powerful than I was, and I wasn't even facing off against the true body of the dragon. He wasn't kidding when he said that he created the perfect, powerful vessel that would be able to enslave the multiverse, and he was willing to fight tooth and nail to keep that vessel from being erased due to the future changing. He called himself an Elder God - a horrifying amalgamation of two gods' powers; of two powers that were never supposed to be combined into one.

I saw the true strength of that Elder God for myself as he attempted to electrocute my Faced Mechon and shut it down for good. My better judgment was telling me to flee, that I was not strong enough even with Obsidian Face to deal with something as ferocious as Grima in this form. It was suicide fighting him alone. My head said 'go' while my heart said 'stay'. All because of you.

You were part of the equation that resulted in the vessel of the Elder God. You would be spared long enough to bring him into existence and then snuffed out after you were not needed anymore. He had you wrapped up in powerful dark magic, keeping you asleep until it was time for you to serve your purpose. All I wanted was to cut you free from that dark claw that curled around your body.

But I couldn't save you. I used my most powerful Mechon attacks merely to defend myself, as the onslaught was relentless and didn't allow me any chances to counter attack. Fireballs, ice shards, lightning bolts, and hurricane winds all battered against my own technologically powered magics, keeping me on my toes.

Finally, I just couldn't keep up anymore. Obsidian Face was destroyed for the second time, exploding completely beyond repair from the magical damage. I saw the attack that would destroy my Mechon before it hit, pressing the eject button just as it flashed through the dark purple machine. As such, I avoided getting completely engulfed in the explosion, but I did not get away unharmed. Though perhaps dying in the inferno might have been better for me in the end.

The destruction took out my left arm completely, tore off part of my left leg, and badly burned the entire left half of my torso. I landed upon the Fell Dragon's back, but there was no way for me to get up and fight with the damage I had taken. Mark's possessed laugh rang in my ears as he sauntered over to my helpless body, pointing his Monado at me with a sadistic grin on his face. His weapon had been specifically designed to destroy Mechon like me. With the last of my strength, I looked up at you, trapped in a terrible nightmare, yet serene in your sleeping form.

The last thing I saw as I was killed was you. He wanted to torture me to make me pay for rebelling against him, but my horribly disfigured body couldn't handle being dismembered for very long, and I died soon after all my limbs were cut off, mercifully saved from whatever other horrific things he was planning to do to me by the sweet embrace of death.


End file.
